The Battle of Mons

23 August 1914

West of Mons along the Canal towards Condé, the 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment and the 1st Cameronians (19th Infantry Brigade) had relieved the Cavalry Division between 2 and 3p.m., the two Battalions extending the line of the B.E.F. to Condé.

The 1st Middlesex (Lieut.-Colonel B. E. Ward) had entrained at Havre on the 22nd and had reached Valenciennes early on the 23rd. On detraining at the latter town the Battalion marched via Quievrechain to St. Aybert, the Middlesex men having been ordered to hold a bridge over the Mons-Condé Canal and Lock 3 towards Condé. "A" Company was ordered to hold the bridge and "C" Company the lock: "B" and "D" Companies were in reserve. The left flank of the Battalion ( "A" Company) was then one mile west of St. Aybert Road, and the right flank ( "C" Company) at Lock 5, about two miles east of St. Aybert. "A" and "C" Companies having had dinner, proceeded to dig themselves in to make the best of their position. About 4.30 p.m. another Company was ordered to hold a bridge over the Canal E. of St. Aybert and "B" Company was sent off, arriving just in time to cover a Squadron of the Bays retiring across the bridge under shell-fire.

But soon after 5 p.m. a heavy attack was made on "B" Company, who successfully held the enemy at bay until the Germans mounted a machine-gun in a house commanding the buildings at the bridge. The latter had been blown up by an N.C.O. of a Cavalry Regiment, just in time to deprive the enemy of the use of it. The buildings, however, on the southern side had to be abandoned, though the 1st Middlesex held the enemy in check.

Hostile rifle fire gradually died down and later, as darkness fell, ceased altogether. During the night the Germans launched another attack, but it was easily driven back. The 1st Battalion had had very few casualties other ranks killed and a few wounded. Of the former a lance-corporal was the first man of the Battalion killed in the War.

At the close of the battle the British centre had been forced back, and between nightfall on 23rd August and 3 a.m. on the morning of the 24th the approximate position of the 8th Infantry Brigade was Nouvelles, with the 7th and 9th Infantry Brigades on the left and with the left flank of the 2nd Division (about Harveng) on the right. The 5th Division was on the right of the 3rd with its right on the road from Quaregnon to Paturages, leaving a gap between the inner flanks of the two Divisions. The left flank of the 5th Division was just south of Haine. The 19th Infantry Brigade, however, stood fast, and it was not until mid-night that orders were received to retire in a south-easterly direction towards Elouges; these orders reaching the 1st Middlesex about 1.30 a.m.

The casualties sustained by the 1st Battalion Middlesex throughout the day were Major H. N. Blakeney wounded, 4 other ranks killed, and 12 wounded. Throughout the night of 23rd-24th August the Germans made no attempt to advance. As darkness fell over the battlefield, to the astonishment of the British troops, German bugles sounding the cease fire were heard everywhere along the line, unit by unit. The German infantry had received a rude shock. The little Army which the enemy had been taught to regard as negligible had not only given proof of its discipline, valour and fighting qualities, but had taught the Germans what really effective rifle fire was like. That first encounter at Mons gave rise to the legend that British battalions were armed with large numbers of machine-guns, so rapid and deadly accurate had been their rifle fire. In 1914 the allotment of machine-guns per British battalion was two. (Contrary to common myth, a comparable number to that issued to the German army)

Wellington at Waterloo prayed for night or Blucher; the enemy at Mons, though in vastly superior numbers, longed for darkness, for when the summer night settled on the blood-stained battlefield and with its shade gave a protecting curtain against the hostile fire, one German Regiment alone had lost 25 officers and far more than 500 N.C.Os. and men.

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